So I'm gonna get a GoPro HD before Christmas so I can record some holiday riding on the coast and wondering if anyone knows of a better deal than this (or if this is even much of a deal)

http://pointofviewcameras.com/gopro-hd-helmet-hero-megapack....

wanna get the most for my buck so I can have the mounts for the bug in the spring, and while driving to the lake.

Also looking for some real decent video editing software that works with the Gopro cams. I don't want to spend a huge wad but also want to be able to do some slomo and other fun stuff without having to dive into taking a course to use it. Any suggestions?

Thanks
Shaggs

The last group buy that Todd did was $240 for the Helmet Pro (pretty sure it was a shipped price).

It didn't include:

USB AC Adapter for Wall Outlet Power Supply
USB Car Charger Adapter for Vehicle Lighter Power Supply
MaxFlash 16GB SDHC Memory Card

The first two can be had from a variety of sources.... price and quality vary wildly and I would prefer to know what I am getting.

Have never heard of MaxFlash and there was a discussion of ROI on the various mainstream and lesser known memory cards.

Usually Costco, BJs or one of the memory discounters (Blue Proton through Amazon comes to mind) can get you name brand memory cards at stupid prices if you keep an eye on them.

I guess the bottom line is that package deals are a dual edged sword. Good bargain sometimes, but sometimes there's some lemon juice if you squeeze hard enough because corners have to be cut to meet profit margins.

Hope that makes enough sense to be helpful.

ATB,
Sam

very good point there sam thanks for that. The car charger would be handy at the lake, and I'm sure that I can get a better quality SDHC card locally. Now if only Todd was doing the group buy again soon I'd be all over that

I found with my GoPro HD that a class 4 card wouldn't cut it - kept 'freezing' and giving me error readings. No problems with a class 6 card. The files from the camera are Mp4 - I have a 2ghz Celeron laptop and it can't play them. Same with my 3ghz Pentium 4 desktop - they're both way too slow to play the files smoothly. I have Corel VideoStudio Pro x and it can't handle Mp4 files!! So I end up using cucusoft converting software to convert everything to Mpeg2 files so they play on my machine and I can edit them. If only I had a decent Mac!! My GoPro steams up occasionally too - these days I tend to use the ventilated back to avoid that. Apart from that, they're such a brilliant little camera - the raw footage on a tv or big screen is just amazing.

GoPro can handle SD card, up to 32GB capacity (SDHC). the min spec is class 4, but I've found class 6 to be compatible. haven't had much luck wit the class 10 card or 166x cards.

Hey Shaggs if you can round up 5 more friends willing to commit to a purchase, another GoPro group buy could be done. Let me know what you come up with.

i have GoPro here in canada as well and I can price you out a package.

I got my HD GoPro from Todd a couple days ago for the $240 price shipped. It's a very good deal. You can get a 12V to USB converter for like $5 on ebay. I already have a USB 5V source on my little 12V to 110VAC inverter in my car so I just use the USB cable to charge the camera that way. The GoPro website recommends a Kingston or Patriot class 4 card. I got a 16GB class 4 card from Fry's Electronics for $35 and it works perfect. The camera automatically breaks the files into 3.8GB files for you so it would fit on a standard DVD. I had an older Transcend 4GB card that only worked for taking pictures. If you try to use the video mode, it would only work for like 3 secs and then the video would end. I guess it wasn't fast enough. One thing I did noticed is that the GoPro works great in bright day light but not too good indoors with poor lighting.

edit: the card I got was a Kingston brand